Blog Tags

Lawrence Group Fitness Monthly Blog - February 2015

Welcome to February! In Lawrence this month brings fantastic new changes thanks to our amazing instructors, great new programs & our brand new yoga studio at North!!

At Lawrence North we Blasted-off into our Grand opening ribbon cutting, with over 200 members & guests attending our group fitness classes! Pictured below is our Group Blast Sneak Peak January 2015 release class & the 9AM Group Power - attended by nearly 50 people!

Below is our Sneak Peak Group Centergy preview - all taught during our Grand Opening Celebration on January 24.

In order to bring Centergy to North, we need more instructors - so we have new kids Jill, Jessica & Tami training to become the newest members of our Group Centergy team.

They attended training earlier his month with Master Trainer Jeannie Patterson & are ready to start teaching classes in our brand new yoga studio this week!

Speaking of Yoga, since we have a new studio at North, our instructors of the month are two of our AMAZING yoga instructors: Brenda Berg Dyck & Kelsey Bitting.

Brenda Berg Dyck (RYT 200) has been teaching yoga in Kansas since 2007. After falling in love with yoga while living in Florida, Brenda moved back to her roots in the sunflower state and started teaching Sivananda style yoga, a classical hatha yoga system, which is a slow paced, meditative practice focusing on breathing and the 12 foundational poses. Over the past 7 1/2 years, her personal practice as well as her teaching style has broadened to include many styles. Brenda is a forever student of yoga, and continues her education by taking yoga workshops and seminars every year.

Whether taking her Yoga Basics or Power Yoga class, Brenda loves to be adventurous with her students. She enjoys helping them progress into advanced poses by breaking them down into small digestible parts. She incorporates a mind-focusing breath technique while flowing in and out of poses, followed by a deep restorative relaxation, which creates not only a stronger and healthier body, but a calmer and quieter mind. Brenda's goal is to empower her students by gaining outer strength, inner calm and trust of their own intuition.

Brenda has a B.S. in Communication Studies from Washburn University and has spent more than 20 years working in development, fundraising, marketing and event planning. Brenda is married and has two teenagers, plus a 14 year old, 60 lbs fur- baby who thinks she's a lap dog.

If you would like to join the legions who love Brenda’s insightful & inspiring yoga practice, plan to join her in any of her classes:

NORTH -

Thursday 9:00AM Power Yoga

Thursday 10:15AM Yoga Basics

Friday 5:00PM Power Core

Friday 5:30PM Power Yoga

Kelsey Bitting - in her own words:

I love teaching yoga classes because yoga has transformed my body and mind in ways I want everyone to have a chance to experience. Since I began practicing regularly, I am a healthier and happier person, and those benefits just keep increasing year after year. In my classes, I try to explain the health value of the yoga practices that I teach, to offer modifications for poses, and to encourage my students to build strength and flexibility while still treating their bodies with respect and kindness. Guiding students to achieve steadiness and ease in a new pose, or just to catch a breath of peace in a hectic world, is one of the great joys of my day-to-day life.

Lately, I have been reading and studying about yoga therapy, or the use of yoga practices to facilitate the body's healing process for specific diseases and conditions. In my personal yoga practice, I am working on arm balances and inversions, remembering how good I feel when I take time to meditate (just a few minutes!) each day, and respecting the limitations of my hip joint structure!

In my day job, I am a Teaching Postdoctoral Fellow for the University of Kansas Department of Geology. My work involves collaborating with faculty to redesign their courses to use the teaching methods and philosophies that are associated with the best student learning outcomes. I also have the opportunity to mentor graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants and conduct a bit of scholarship of my own around the process of change in higher education. In my spare time, I enjoy hanging out with my husband Jay and our two cats, getting together for dinner or coffee with friends, and learning (trying to learn?) to garden.